As I mentioned in a previous post, I begin the goal-setting process by identifying my North Stars. This coming year, I have four of them:
- To see my Book in wild
- To be symptom free and tracking against Arthritis remission
- To sustain and build Financial security
- To Be a good ancestor
The next step in the process is to define specific tangible milestones that tell me that I’m moving toward those North Stars. So, I’ve decided that success in December 2025 looks like:
- 6 more books on the proud of myself shelf, at least three with my name on the spine
- Successful launch, publication and promotion of Advanced Unicorn Theory
- Self-publishing at least one book
- Free of arthritis symptoms and tracking for remission status
- Stable, steady income that meets or exceeds my monthly expenses
- At least 20 coaching client sessions per month
- At least 1 Morbid Anatomy class per month
- At least 1 Morbid Anatomy lecture per quarter
- At least 1 Morbid Anatomy and Patreon on-demand class per quarter
- At least $100/ month from passive income sources
- An emergency fund set up properly
- Maximum annual IRA contribution made by end of year
- Taking one trip per quarter
Of course, not all of this is going to happen in the next 90 days. So I’ll need to break down those larger goals into smaller steps for the first quarter.
My Q1 Goals are:
- To officially launch my coaching business – My current goal is 7 client sessions/ month by 3/31
- Completion of the presentation for SWPCA ACA in February
- Taking one trip with Josh
- Submit the classes that I’ll be teaching in Q2 classes to Morbid Anatomy
- Teaching at least one class per month this quarter (Ritual Theory, Myth Retellings, Spring and Sex) plus giving the lecture in February. On-demand class will probably be Ritual Theory.
- Starting seeds in February and getting the garden started
- Fire safety in March and April, and the go-box needs to be refreshed
- Finish Advanced Unicorn Theory – Technically the whole finalized package isn’t due to the publisher until May 1, but I’d like to get the image copyrights nailed down by the end of this quarter, and hopefully get the peer review edits started
- Finish the dissertation / storytelling book proposal and get it out on submissions by 3/31
- Have my emergency fund set up (it’s currently in a CD, and I think it needs to be located in a different kind of account)
- Submit my 2024 taxes
- I think I want to try to get my shingles vaccines – it’s early age-wise, but I am immunosuppressed, so I think I might be able to get it?
- To self-publish the novella that is a retelling of the Psyche story before the lecture on the topic on 2/17
There are also daily, weekly, and monthly checklists that support these goals. My daily checklists are mostly around the PERMA+H model. Weekly checklists are about maintaining social connections and doing good self care. Monthly checklists range from everything form a monthly reminder to check the level on the propane tank to taking in some sort of beauty deliberately each month.
If you’ve followed these accountability posts each quarter over the preceding year, what you might notice is that there are some categories of goals missing. I’m not specifically trying to read a certain number of books per month or year. I found this to be unnecessary pressure. I have varying degrees of energy in the evenings when I normally read, and I didn’t like the added “should” element to that. So I’m easing up on the “should” and letting it be whatever it wants to be.
I’m not setting specific goals for the burnout work in Q1, either. The reason for this is because it’s very much up in the air right now. The book will be submitted to a group of editors with a publisher in January. If a traditional publishing contract comes out of that, then I’ll have a better idea of timeline and goals for that work, as well as the classes. If the book doesn’t get picked up, then it will require a different set of timelines and milestones if I decide to self-publish it.